Running with the Demon (Word & the Void Series) [Paperback]

John Ross, the tortured, conflicted A Knight of the Word from Terry Brooks's Running with the Demon, finally gets a good night's sleep in the sequel. He buys this moment's peace at the cost of his sacred oath to be a champion of the Word, renouncing that pledge after failing to prevent the slaughter of a group of schoolchildren. Duty and destiny are difficult to elude, though, and soon his former charge Nest Freemark, now a college student and Olympic hopeful, arrives to warn him of his imminent destruction or, worse still, his unwitting fall into the service of the Void.

The story winds lazily through sleepy, wet Seattle like a tour bus, steadily building. Everything eventually converges on the homeless shelter where John works with his new sweetheart Stefanie Winslow for über-activist Simon Lawrence, a man his dreams tell him he is fated to kill. A thin mystery clouds the identity of the demon conspiring to deliver John unto evil, but the book's real focus is John's fitful, foot- dragging attempt to fulfil his destiny. Knight of the Word doesn't provide the suspenseful energy of Running, a book that followed Nest through the dramatic loss of her childhood, but it rejoins her as she assumes the responsibilities of young adulthood and--like that period in life--still manages to deliver satisfying, if more subtle, rewards. --Paul Hughes

A marvellous fantasy trip' Frank Herbert 'If Harry Potter has given you a thirst for fantasy and you have not discovered the magic of Terry Brooks, you are in for a treat' ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS 'Confirms Terry's place at the head of the fantasy world' Philip Pullman

`By far the best of Terry Brooks' many wonderful novels...I couldn't put it down'

`His fans should embrace it as eagerly as they have THE SWORD OF SHANNARA'

* Twenty years ago, Terry Brooks turned fantasy fiction on its head with THE SWORD OF SHANNARA. Now, with RUNNING WITH THE DEMON, he's done it again --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

On the hottest Fourth of July weekend in decades, two men have come to Hopewell, Illinois, site of a long and bitter steel strike. One is a demon, a dark servant of the Void, who will use the anger and frustration of the community to achieve a terrible secret goal. The other is John Ross, a Knight of the Word, a man who, while he sleeps, lives in the hell the world will become if he fails to change its course on waking. Ross has been given the ability to see the future. But does he have the power to change it? At stake is the soul of a fourteen-year-old girl mysteriously linked to both men. And the lives of the people of Hopewell. And the future of the country. This Fourth of July, while friends and families picnic in Sinnissippi Park and fireworks explode in celebration of freedom and independence, the fate of Humanity will be decided...Look out for more information on this book and others on the Orbit website at www.orbitbooks.co.uk

Terry Brooks was a practising attorney for many years, but now writes full-time. His first novel, THE SWORD OF SHANNARA, remained on the New York Times bestseller list for 5 months, and this was followed by 13 consecutive bestselling novels.